1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a floor covering and more particularly to a readily portable framed, liquid-absorbing mat which minimizes solid or liquid waste collection and disposal costs. One application of this device would be for collection and disposal of animal waste from confined animals such as livestock.
2. Description of Related Art
Since time immemorial, straw or other livestock bedding material has been used as bedding for domestic animals. Once soiled, the bedding must be removed and disposed of, usually being stored near the stable then hauled away for use as compost and manure.
Bedding is today becoming relatively expensive and a regular supply is becoming difficult to obtain. Further, the use of bedding, even by farmers who grow their own, requires the use of special bedding-handling equipment, (e.g. bailers) and storage locations (e.g. barns), together with the labor of collecting and storing the bedding and for frequent bedding-handling throughout the year, i.e. mucking out and laying new bedding.
Animals are frequently housed in a barn containing individual stalls in which the floor is either a dirt, clay, gravel, or stonedust floor, or a wooden grating, or brick laid directly on earth, or concrete. More often than not, the animal occupying the stall defecates and urinates on the bedding.
Unfortunately, the bedding does not absorb the urine and dirt floors turn to mud easily upon an animals' urination. When the stall is cleaned, the removal of the mud forms holes in the dirt which require constant attention and which are not always easy to fill in.
Wooden gratings or "duckboards" and other plastic gratings are hard for lying on, fairly expensive, provide unsuitable footing for many kinds of livestock and further can interfere with the flow of water when washing down a barn. Plus, an animal may be cut with splinters, which if lodged under the skin, may fester.
Brick and concrete floors are not only hard, but they are also cold and generally require the use of large quantities of bedding requiring frequent replacement. Brick and concrete floors, also, are subject to the drawback of encouraging various ailments in the animals using them, in particular joints often become sprained, wrenched, deformed, rheumatic, or arthritic.
It has also been proposed to cover floors for stabling by juxtaposing layers formed by natural and/or synthetic material. However, the results obtained till now are not satisfactory. Manufactured stall floor covers do not have the resiliency nor the permeability necessary for the good accommodation of animals. They address only stall floor maintenance reduction, rather than facilitating the collection and disposal of waste.